SP: whether available in any single player mission.
MP: whether available in multiplayer mode.
Damage: hit points reduced by single head shot.
Clip: number of rounds held in magazine.
Rate/s: number of rounds that can be fired per second.
ST: whether weapon will shoot through soft targets

Ammunition

The standard 9mm round is employed
by all normal pistols and submachine guns,
which total more than half of the firearms available in the game.
In most of these weapons its potential is 4 damage points,
with four exceptions:
the Klobb only delivers 2.4 points with each round,
the Phantom 5.6,
the RC-P90 7.2,
and the Golden PP7 inflicts 400 points of damage per round.

Both the KF7 Soviet and the Sniper Rifle
deliver 4 points of damage using this munition,
while the AR33 inflicts 5.6 points and will also shoot through soft targets.
The former thus treat the round like a hollow point,
while the latter's effect is similar to a full metal jacket.

Each cartridge contains five pellets
which spread out as they leave the weapon's barrel.
They are most useful for devastating a target at close range -
especially when a head shot can be managed -
or for doing slight damage to a target at medium or longer distance,
where the spread of the pellets increases the chance of a hit
but significantly decreases the damage delivered.

Golden bullets are fired only by the Golden Gun
(and not by the Golden PP7, which uses 9mm ammunition).
Each shot will usually kill or destroy its target,
though the actual damage delivered is actually finite:
four hundred points per head shot.

Grenade rounds are ballistic explosives
that will bounce off of walls and ceilings as they loft toward their target;
they explode when hitting a floor or, more generally,
when the round strikes any horizontal surface while falling.

Weapons

Bond is trained in Uechi karate
(according to a description of his morning exercises
in License Renewed by John Gardner)
and when `Unarmed' can use his hands to deliver modestly damaging blows
to his opponents.
A significant advantage of this attack in single player mode
is that enemy characters consider it to be silent -
making even less noise than a silenced firearm -
so it can be employed when opponents need to be dispatched
without drawing attention.
In multiplayer it is a useful defense for unarmed players in License to Kill.

If the player is carrying a Sniper Rifle,
then Unarmed will be implemented as a blow from the butt of the rifle.
The difference is merely theatrical,
and does no more damage than an attack with the hands.

Based on the famous Walther PPK
issued to Bond by M,
this elegant pistol combines superb accuracy
with speed sufficient to unload an entire clip in just over a second.
The rounds inflict average damage.
When silenced the PP7 is the most quiet firearm in the game,
useful for dispatching enemy personnel cleanly and without disturbance
during covert operations.
It may also be called upon to deliver accurate shots at medium to long range
when a sighted weapon is unavailable or presents too narrow a field of view;
but at close range weapons with larger clips will usually be more effective.

This pistol -
ignorantly but almost invariably called the `Destroyer' by novices -
offers solid performance
while making quite a lot of noise and achieving only fair accuracy.
It inflicts average damage with each round,
which are carried in a clip larger than that of any other GoldenEye pistol.
Its most effective role is delivering power at close range
when neither stealth nor precision are demanded.

The Klobb makes quite poor use of its ammunition -
delivering less damage per round than any other GoldenEye firearm -
and compounds the problem
by making it difficult to hit anything in the first place.
Its poor aim is inherent to its design, not a symptom of recoil,
so firing single shots does not improve its usefulness.
While it offers one of the faster rates of fire,
this also means it exhausts its small clip
more quickly than any other automatic weapon.
This weapon is normally used only as a last resort.

This Russian assault rifle is sturdy and reliable
while not excelling in any category.
It possesses a reasonable clip size, modest rate of fire,
and does average damage;
a strong recoil tends to spoil its aim in burst and automatic modes.
It has a medium-power scope which,
combined with its accuracy in single shot mode,
make it a passable sniping weapon.

Cycling faster than any other GoldenEye weapon,
this is the second most powerful submachine gun in the game
despite delivering only average damage with each bullet.
The magazine is the third largest available in GoldenEye
but empties almost as fast as a Klobb.
It is an exemplary short range weapon,
but becomes less useful as the range to target increases.
Though its accuracy is degraded by recoil in automatic mode,
the ZMG is actually very accurate as a single shot weapon.

While similar to the ZMG
with respect to accuracy and clip size,
this weapon offers only a moderate rate of fire and inflicts average damage.
Together these attributes make it an unimpressive but usable weapon.
If fitted with a silencer it offers substantial firepower
likely to attract only a small audience.

The Phantom has a large magazine
and is among the most powerful weapons -
delivering above average damage per shot -
but overall achieves only mediocrity.
Its significant recoil makes it quite inaccurate,
and it has the slowest rate of fire of any automatic.

With power second only to that of the RC-P90,
this United States manufactured rifle fires penetrating rounds
producing greater than average damage
at a rate close to that of the ZMG 9mm.
Its mechanism can exhaust the thirty round clip rather quickly
but with an accuracy that among automatics is second only to the RC-P90.
The presence of a powerful sight gives this weapon its specialty
for projecting significant damage across a long distance.

This submachine gun is the most powerful firearm
in the GoldenEye arsenal.
Each nine millimeter round does almost twice average damage
and will pass through multiple targets.
The automatic mechanism cycles very quickly,
ranking third among all GoldenEye weapons in firing rate,
yet draws from such a deep magazine
that it can sustain a longer barrage than any other firearm.
It fires armor-piercing rounds and its design minimizes recoil
to give the RC-P90 the greatest accuracy among automatic weapons.
It is most players' weapon of choice;
its main detractions are the lack of a telescopic sight for long range work,
and its tendency to exhaust a limited supply of ammunition rather quickly.

Although each automatic shotgun pellet
inflicts only the damage of a Klobb bullet,
they together deliver the most punishment of a single shot
from any firearm in GoldenEye.
However, this damage can only be delivered at close range;
at long range the spread of the pellets makes it impossible
to land more than a fraction of the damage on a human target
(although this is enough when playing multiplayer License to Kill,
where the wide spread can often be an advantage).
The firing rate of less than two cartridges per second
makes this weapon difficult to use against quickly moving targets.

The telescopic sight of this rifle is adjustable,
making it useful for both medium and long range work.
Since the magnification is adjusted with C-up and C-down,
a player wishing to kneel while sniping
must kneel with another weapon selected then change weapons.
Unlike real sniper rifles which load only single rounds,
this rifle loads eight;
and though each shot produces only average damage,
they can be manually fired off with amazing speed
and without the appreciable recoil a real sniper rifle would produce.
Higher magnifications can be unwieldy if an opponent approaches too close,
so the player should have a reasonable magnification selected
before engaging enemy personnel.

Magnum rounds produce fully twice average damage
and may be aimed with great accuracy.
The gun has a very strong kick,
and the time required for the character to return the gun to position
limits its rate to less than two rounds per second;
this unwieldiness is compounded by the revolver action
which introduces a delay of about a sixth of a second
between when the trigger is pulled and the gun fires.
The weapon is useful only when significant doses of damage are required
and the player can hit an enemy despite the delay and low rate of fire.

The golden gun is a magic weapon;
a target hit with a golden bullet is destroyed or killed.
Note that it does not shoot through targets
despite completely devastating them.
It must be used carefully since it is a single shooter
and must be reloaded after every shot.

The fact that only one rocket can be chambered
and only three extra lugged about
limits the explosive power that a player can carry with this weapon.
The straight trajectory of rockets makes them excellent for use
against targets standing in front of walls,
but it can be hard to select the shallow angle necessary
to make a rocket intersect the floor at the location of an enemy
in the middle of a room or outdoors.

A grenade is a timed explosive
with a hard casing that allows it to bounce or slide without detonating.
They often travel quite far on smooth floors;
throwing higher increases the distance they travel.

Grenades have a two-stage firing procedure
(similar to knives):
press the Z button to pull the pin and start its fuse,
and release Z to throw the grenade.
This allows the player to throw with less than the full fuse remaining,
so as to reduce the time other players have to respond,
or make the grenade explode in midair -
at the level of an overhead catwalk, for instance.

These mines have rather limited application,
and are only useful against targets whose position five seconds from `now'
can be predicted (such as stationary targets).
Unlike grenades,
their fuse cannot be started early;
so their only advantage is greater flexibility in their placement.

`Proxies' arm themselves five seconds after being laid,
after which they will explode when a person
or an airborne mine pass near them.
The latter fact makes throwing mines ahead of a player
an important method of clearing proxies,
especially when they are behind corners where they cannot be shot.
As they are capable of delivering explosive force to an opponent
without further intervention by their user,
they make for multiplayer games with quite high kill counts.

The standard procedure for remote mines
involves the player laying one or several,
switching to the watch detonator, and detonating the mines.
Because of the delay of switching to the watch,
they cannot be employed this way in a fight against an alert opponent,
and instead work best as weapons planted secretly
and set off later when an opponent approaches one.
This can be difficult if the miner is distracted by multiple opponents,
or engaged in a firefight that prohibits him from switching to the watch.

The innovation that makes remote mines
perhaps the most brutal weapon in the game is that,
when they are selected,
pressing A and B together activates the watch detonator
without having to switch to it.
This makes the mine into a kind of super-grenade:
a mine can be thrown at an opponent and immediately detonated,
or laid as a player is retreating and blown when his opponent reaches it;
in neither case is its effectiveness hampered
by an arming delay or a fixed fuse.
While difficult to throw any great distance,
remotes are extremely effective if employed with skill
against targets at medium and close range.

When the last mine held by a player is laid,
the watch detonator is automatically selected.
Since the watch does not respond to A and B together, but only to Z,
the player must adjust his detonation method for this last mine.
Momentary confusion about this can be fatal.

The tank is a long range weapon
capable of lofting its munitions a considerable distance,
but is rather clumsy to use against close targets.
Its reload time is high - around 2.5 seconds.
Often the ability of a tank to run over and crush opponents
is as useful as its artillery.